Speed control for printing press



R. K. NORTON SPEED CONTROL FOR PRINTING PRESS Feb. 25, 1958 4Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 21, 1954 INVENTOR. ROBERT K AMT 0NATTORAH'YKY Feb. 25, 1958 R. K. NORTON SPEED CONTROL FOR PRINTING PRESS4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 21, 1954 INVENTOR.

ROBERT K NORTON BY 4; ,Q 4% AZYUBW Feb.,25,v 1958 R. K. NORTON 2,824,457

SPEED CONTROL FOR PRINTING PRESS Filed April 21, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 3IN V EN TOR.

WEE/P7 ,KA'ORTON ATP? 5' Feb. 25, 1958 R. K. NORTON 2,824,457

SPEED CONTROL FOR PRINTING PRESS Filed April 21, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 4IN VEN TOR. ROBERT. MUN BYfl Q I United States Patent SPEED CONTROL FORPRINTING PRESS Robert K. Norton, Twiusliurg', Ohio, assignor toHarrisintertype Corporation; a corporation of Delaware ApplicationApril21, 1954, Serial No. 424,722

17 Claims; (Cl. Ti -230.17)

This invention relates to improvements in speed control for a printingpress, more particularly a means by which the operator may effect manualcontrol of the press speed, the invention comprising also means forautomatically shifting the control to cause the press to operate atitslowest speed when it is tripped to Impression off position.

One of the objects of the invention i the provision of a speed controlfor small presses which is of simple construction and lower cost thancontrols heretofore available, and one in which automatic action whenimpression is thrown off brings about press operation at a slow speedrather than astopping of the press, the latter action being inconvenientand time consuming especially in the case of offset'pr'esses in that astopping'of such a press and a consequent interruption of the platedampening operation necessitates gumm'ing up of the plate.

Another object is the provision of means within the centroid theoperator'for' disabling the automatic means and permitting manualoperation of the speed control during arr impression off period toeffect a drive of the press at a speed higher thanthat to which thedrive is thrown automatically, which is desirable at times when the'wash-up'of pressp'art's is-to be undertaken.

A further object is the provision of means for automatically or manuallyte'nsioning a belt driven by an adjustable diameter pulleymounted on amotor shaft so as tocause changes in theelfective diameter of the pulleyand'therefore' changes in the speed of the belt.

Stillanother'object' is the provisionof means for operating: the pressat any predetermined speed within its speed range Whether fornormalrunning' of the press or for wash-up.

Other objects and features of novelty will appear as lproceed withthedesc'ription of that embodiment of the invention which for 'the'purposes of the present application, Ihaveiillustrateddnthe-accompanying drawings, inawhich:

.Fig. 1 is a=side elevational view of a variable speed operating. meansembodying the invention, certain parts being broken away to more;clearly illustrate the invention and-the control beingshown: in highspeedposition.

Fig.- 2 is a similar view showing the parts in the position which theyassume after the impression has been thrown oif. and slow speedoperationis in effect.

Fig. 3; is a further similar view with impression 01f and showing theparts-inthepositionito which the control may be manually shiftedfor-operating the press at some speed-greater than the slowest speed; asfor example when the operatordesires' to wash-up'the inking rollers ofthe press, and

. Fig.4 is a transverse: vertical view, partly in section on the:line.44of Fig. 2.

.Inthe drawings. a constant speedelectric motor is shown.at.10;. On themotor shaft there is mounted an adjustablediameter pulley 11 of theReeves variable pitch type, the two si'desof which are-urged. towardeach other under the influence of spring pressure in a conventionaltrain of gears which includes a pinion 17 on shaft 1 3- meshing with agear 18 that is keyed to a shaft 19 journalled in theframe wall 14. Onshaft 19 there is a pinion 20' which meshes with a gear 21 on arshaft22,

which may be the shaft of one of the printing cylinders of the press. rI

The speed control of the press ls'accomplished by moving the idlerpulley 16 outwardly and downwardly from its Fig. 1 position of highestspeed to its Fig. 2 position of lowest speed or to some intermediateposition, as that of Fig. 3. The preferred means for varying thiscontrol is that illustrated in the drawings, where pulley" is rotatablewith or upon a stub shaft 24 carried in thefree end of an arm 25. Theinner end of this arm is fixed to a gear 26 that turns with or upon astub shaft 27 journall'ed' in the frame member 14-. Meshing with gear 26is a gear 28 that is fixed upon a shaft 29 which ex tends'across themachine and is slidable as well'as ro-' tatable in hearings in the framemember 14" and in the other side frame member 30; Gear 28 meshesnormally with a gear 31 which is fixed to a shaft 32 journalled'ln framemember 14. Shaft 32 also has fixed thereupon a generally circular shroud33 of greater diameter than gear 31', which however has a cutout 34along one edge.

Shaft 29 is normally urged to the right as viewed in Fig. 4 by means ofa coil spring 35 which bears against frame member 30 at one end andagainst a collar 36 pinned to the shaft at the other end. By thismeansgear 28' is normally maintained in mesh with gear 31. When howeverthe shaft 29, which is hereinafter termed the operating shaft, is pulledto the left as far as it will go, gear 28 is withdrawn from meshingrelation with gear 31, but maintained in meshwith gear 26. To facilitatethe axial and rotational movement of shaft 29' it carries" on one'endoutsidethe frame member 30 a hub 37 which is pinned to the shaft, andfrom this hub there extends a handle 38. Extending outwardly from hub 37there is also a pointer 39'which is adapted to run over a curveddialplate 40 carrying a series of graduations representing differentpress speeds.

Projecting from gear 31 there is a pin 41 which is'normally held in theposition of Fig. 1 by a cavity in' one arm 42 of a bell crank, the otherarm 43 of which e'xtends from their common shaft 44 at an angle to arm42. Shaft 44 extends through and is rotatable in frame wall 14. The bellcrank is biased toward the Fig. 1 position by a tension spring 45, theeffect of which is limited by an adjustable stop 46.

Manual speed adjustment-The structure thus far described affords meansfor adjusting the speed of the press 31 by moving through the cutout 34.He then turns shaft 29 by means of the handle until pointer 39 is disposed opposite graduation 5. Then spring 35 is permitted to shifttheshaft 29 axially back toits former position; Different teeth of gear28now-engage the lowermostteeth of gear 31 and the parts are held in thisnew position Patented Feb. 25, 1958 because of the fact that gear 31 islocked by pin 41 and bell crank arm 42. The rotational movement ofhandle 38 while free from the latching effect of gear 31, turns gear 26and draws arm clown to swing idler pulley 16 crosswise of thelower runof belt 15, which places sulficient tension on-the belt to separate thetwo halves of pulley 11 far enough to reduce the. etfective diameter ofthe pulley to the extent requisite to reduce the. speed to that whichcorresponds with the pointer setting 5.

Automatic shift to slow speed.As previously stated one of the advantagesof the invention is the automatic operation of the speed control tobring about slow speed operation when the printing is interrupted which,as is well understood in the art, may occur automatically byconventional means when there is a misfeed of sheets. Such automaticmeans may include a longitudinally movable rod 48 which moves upwardly,as indicated by the arrow in Fig. 2, when the press is thrown off. Atthe lower end of this rod there is a hook 49 which engages a pin on bellcrank arm 43. in the position of Fig. 1. When the throwoff occurs rod 48moves upwardly to the position of Fig. 2, swinging the bell crankcounterclockwise far enough to cause the arm 42 of thebell crank torelease its hold upon pin 41. A heavy spring actuator indicatedgenerally by the reference number 51 then acts to swing arm 25 clockwiseabout its shaft 27 to the position of Fig. 2. As this occurs gear 26,rigid with arm 25, turns gear 28, turning the handle 38 counterclockwiseand throwing pointer 39 down to the speed indication marked 1, which isthe lowest speed of'the machine. At the same time gear 28 turns theunlatched gear 31 and its shroud 33 so that the cutout 34 no longerclears gear 28.

This rotation of the gears and the consequent shifting to lowest speedis brought about by the heavy spring actu ator 51 which comprises a rod52 that extends through a hole in a noddle pin 53, thatis oscillatablymounted in the machine frame. The term noddle pin is one that iswell-known in the practical printing machine art and refers to a pinmounted to oscillate through a small angle due to the swinging action ofa rod which passes loosely through a hole in the pin. A compressionspring 54 surrounds rod 52 between noddle pin 53 and an adjustable nut55 threaded on the rod. By means of nuts 56 and 57 rod 52 is adjustablyconnected to a bar 58 which is pivotally connected to arm 25 at thepoint 59. Movement of the rod toward the right as viewed in Fig. 1 islimited by a pair of nuts 60 which are adapted to engage noddle pin 53as indicated in Fig. 2. Whenthe difficulty in sheet feeding has beencorrected the rod 48 will be moved downwardly, permitting the spring 45to swing the bell crank lever 42, 43, clockwise back to its originalposition, whereupon the operator may turn handle 38 clockwise againstthe action of actuator 51 to the point of speed at which the press wasrunning before the interruption; Assuming that this was maximum speed,the pointer will be returned to scale indication 10, at which time pin41 will have turned counterclockwise to snap into the notch in bellcrank arm 42. This will lock all of the gears and hold the idler pulley16 in the position previously selected for press operation. It will benoted that it would have been impossible for the operator to set thecontrol at some speed other than that previously selected for operationof the press because the gear 31 cannot be put in position to lock thegears at such other speed. However if some speed other than maximumspeed had been selected for press operation, say for example speedcorresponding to scale indication 8, different teeth of gear 28 wouldhave engaged the teeth of gear 31 when the latter gear was latchedagainst movement. Consequently when the press was thrown off gear 28would have turned through a dilferent angle, that is from speed 8 tospeed 1, and pin 41 would have turned clockwise through acorrespondingly small angle. Hence, when the handle 38 was turnedclockwise to return to Normally these parts are such selectedpressspeed, the latching of the gears would have occurred when the pointerwas returned to speed 8.

Wash-up speed.The wash-up operation may be performed when the press isin impression off condition, and at that time the rod 48 is in its upperposition which throws the bell crank counterclockwise to the position inwhich gear 31 is unlatched. It is emential however to have the gearlatched in order to maintain a selected speed. For this purpose there isprovided a shaft having a handle 66 at one end and a cam 67 at the otherend. By turning the handle to the position of Fig. 3, the cam 67 may becaused to deflect the lower part of the rod 48 toward the right, so thatthe hook 49 disengages the pin 50 and leaves the bell crank free to turnclockwise under the influence of spring 45, which returns the arm 42 ofthe bellcrank to its latching position. Now the operator can move thehandle 38 around to turn the gears until the pin 41 engages the notch inarm 42, at which time the cutout 34 of the shroud will be in itslowermost position in which the gear 28 is cleared. If the operatorwishes to perform the wash-up operation at the speed previously selectedfor running speed of the press everything will be in order for him toproceed with that operation. However if he wishes to do the wash-up at asomewhat lower speed, say that corresponding with the dial reading 5, hecan pull the shaft 29 to ward the left to disengage gear 28 from gear 31and then swing handle 38 to cause pointer 39 to register with that dialreading, after which he may permit spring 35 to move shaft 29 to theright to return gear 28 into mesh with gear 31, thus locking the partsin the desired speed setting.

It will observed therefore that the mechanism herein illustrated anddescribed enables the operator to manually select any one of the severalavailable speeds as press running speed, or any one of the severalspeeds as washup speed, impression being thrown off, while automaticmeans is provided to shift the control to lowest speed when impressionis thrown ofl, this low speed operation being highly desirable overstopping the press entirely as it maintains the plate dampening means inoperation and saves gumming up the plate as would be necessary if themachine stopped.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a printing machine, driving mechanism comprising driving anddriven pulleys on fixed parallel axes, a belt running over said pulleys,one of said pulleys being adjustable as to its effective diameter inresponse to variations in the tension of said belt, an idler pulley overwhich said belt runs, spring means tending to move said idler to belttensioning position and reduce the effective diameter of said adjustablepulley, manual means. for moving said idler to decrease belt tension andincrease the diameter of said adjustable pulley, and latching means forpreventing actuation of said spring means.

2. In a printing machine, driving mechanism comprising driving anddriven pulleys on fixed parallel axes, a belt running over said pulleys,said driving pulley being adjustable as to its effective diameter inresponse to changes in the tension of said belt, an idler pulley on anaxis parallel to the other named axes engaging the inner side of one runof said belt, spring means tending to move said idler pulley outwardlyaway from the op posite run of the belt for increasing the tension ofthe belt and reducing the effective diameter of said driving pulley,whereby the drive is biased toward low speed position, and meansselectively operable against the pressure of said spring means forlatching said idler in any one of a series of higher speed positions.

3. A printing press driving mechanism, substantially as defined in claim1, wherein said manual means is adjustable to an intermediate positionin which said idler exerts a partial tensioning of said belt, and meansfor disabling said latching means, said spring means being automaticallyoperative upon the disabling of said latching means for shifting saididler to increase. its belt tensioning effect. 1

4. In a-printing'press', driving mechanism substantially as defined inclaim 2, comprising means for disabling said latching means, said springmeans being automaticallyoperative upon the disabling of said latchingmeans for shifting said' idler outwardly to low speed position.

5. In a printing press, driving mechanism substantially as defined inclaim 4 and comprising manual means for shifting said disabling meansout of operative position.

6. A speed control drive mechanism for a printing press comprising incombination, a constant speed driving motor, a pulley on the shaft ofsaid motor, a driven shaft forming part of the printing press, a pulleyfixed on said driven shaft, a continuous belt traveling around saidpulleys, the effective diameter of the pulley on said motor shaft beingadjustable in response to changes in the tension of said belt, and meansfor deforming the path in which said belt travels to adjust theeffective diameter of the pulley on said motor shaft and thereby varythe speed of the driven shaft, said deforming means comprising an idlerpulley, means for positioning said idler pulley in any one of severallocations, means for latching said idler pulley in said selectedpositions, means for disabling said latching means, and meansautomatically operative upon the operation of said disabling means forshifting said idler pulley to belt tensioning and low speed position.

7. In a printing machine, speed control mechanism comprising paralleldriving and driven shafts, a pulley on each of said shafts, an idlerpulley on an axis parallel to said driving and driven shafts, a belttrained over said pulleys, the effective diameter of said driving pulleybeing adjustable in response to changes in the tension of said belt, atrain of gears comprising first, second and third gears, an arm fixedwith respect to said third gear, said arm carrying said idler pulley, alengthwise movable operating shaft upon which said second gear is fixed,said second and third gears being always in mesh, said operating shaftbeing adjustable lengthwise to engage or disengage said second gear fromsaid first gear, means for latching said first gear in a single rotativeposition, a shroud fixed to said first gear having a cutout to clearsaid second gear when said first gear is in latched position and whensaid second gear is moved axially to disengage it from said first gear,whereby said operating shaft may be moved lengthwise to clear its gearfrom the first gear, turned to rotate the third gear and its arm to aselected position and then returned lengthwise to cause said second gearto engage said first gear in a relatively different angular position forlocking the second and third gears in the newly selected position.

8. In a speed control mechanism substantially as defined in claim 7,means for unlatching said first gear, and means for turning all threemeshing gears to a selected position and for turning said shroud toprevent axial movement of said operating shaft until the gears arerotated in the opposite direction to bring said first gear into latchingposition and said shroud into position to clear said second gear.

9. In a speed control mechanism substantially as defined in claim 7,means for unlatching said first gear, and automatic means functioningupon the unlatching of said first gear to turn said gears to a positionfor causing said idler to put maximum tension upon said belt forcontracting the effective diameter of said driving pulley to cause slowoperation of said driven shaft.

10. In driving mechanism of the character described, driving and drivenpulleys on fixed parallel axes, a belt running over said pulleys, one ofsaid pulleys being adjustable as to its effective diameter in responseto variations in the tension of said belt, an idler pulley over whichsaid belt runs, said idler pulley being movable in a direction generallynormal to that run of the belt which 6, it engages for increasing belttension to effective diameter of the adjustable pulley and change thespeed of the driven pulley, means for actuating-said idler including aspring tending to move the idler to belt tensioning position andincluding manual means adapted to move the idler in opposition to saidspring, means for retaining said actuating means in a selectedfixed'position for producing a desired speed of the driven pulley, andmeans for disabling said retaining means to enable said spring toincrease the tension on said belt with a consequent change of speed ofthe driven pulley.

11. In driving mechanism of the character described, driving and drivenpulleys on fixed parallel axes, a belt running over said pulleys, saiddriving pulley being adjustable as to'its effective diameter in responseto variations in the tension of said belt, an idler pulley over whichsaid belt runs, automatic means tending to move said idler pulley in adirection to increase belt tension and diminish the effective diameterof said driving pulley with a corresponding decrease of driven pulleyspeed, means under control of the operator to move the idler in adirection to decrease belt tension and increase the effective diameterof the driving pulley, and means for retaining said idler pulley in aselected fixed position above minimum speed, said retaining means beingreleasable to permit said automatic means to move said idler pulley toincrease the tension of the belt.

12. The invention substantially as defined in claim 11 and includingmeans for releasing said retaining means.

13. In a speed control mechanism, parallel driving and driven shafts, apulley on each of said shafts, an idler pulley on an axis parallel tosaid driving and driven shafts, a belt trained over said pulleys, theeffective diameter of said driving pulley being adjustable in responseto changes in the tension of said belt, a train of gears comprisingfirst, second and third gears, an arm fixed with respect to said thirdgear, said arm carrying said idler pulley, a lengthwise movableoperating shaft upon which said second gear is fixed, said second andthird gears always being in mesh, means for latching said first gear ina single rotative position, said operating shaft being adjustablelengthwise to engage or disengage said second gear from said first gear,and means preventing disengagement of said second gear from said firstgear except when said first gear is in latched position, said operatingshaft when moved lengthwise to clear its gear from the first gear beingmanually rotatable to rotate the third gear and the arm and idler pulleyto a selected position, return lengthwise movement of said operatingshaft causing said second and first gears to mesh in a relativelydifferent angular position for locking the second and third gears in thenewly selected position.

14. In a speed control mechanism substantially as defined in claim 13,means for unlatching said first gear, and automatic means functioningupon the unlatching of said first gear to turn said gears to a positionfor causing said idler to put maximum tension upon said belt forcontracting the effective diameter of said driving pulley to cause slowoperation of said driven shaft.

15. In driving mechanism of the character described, driving and drivenpulleys on fixed parallel axes, a belt running over said pulleys, one ofsaid pulleys being adjustable as to its effective diameter in responseto variations in the tension of said belt, an idler pulley over whichsaid belt runs, said idler pulley being movable in directions generallynormal to that run of the belt which it engages for varying belt tensionto change the effective diameter of the adjustable pulley and therebychange the speed of the driven shaft, means for actuating said idlerincluding a spring tending to move the idler in one direction andincluding manual means adapted to move the idler in opposition to saidspring, means for retaining said actuating means in a selected fixedposition for producing a desired speed of the driven pulley,

decrease the;

.7 and means for disabling said retaining means thereby causing thespring to move the idler pulley to change the tension on said belt andconsequently change the speed of the driven pulley.

'16. The invention substantially as defined in claim 10 and includingmeans for placing said disabling means in inoperative condition.

17. The invention substantially as defined in claim 15 References Citedin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Hofe Oct. 25, 1938 HartOct. 31, 1951 Braman Feb. 12, 1952

